MOSCOW— Police have dispersed a gay rally in Moscow and detained some of the protesters.
About two dozen activists held Tuesday's demonstration to protest policies of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who has called homosexuals "satanic" and thwarted attempts to hold a gay pride rally in Russia's capital.
Tuesday's rally was held without a required permit, and police detained most, if not all, the activists in a square near city hall after they displayed a papier-mache mummy resembling Luzhkov and unfurled posters ridiculing him.
Russia's leading gay activist, Nikolai Alexeyev, said in a telephone interview from inside a police van that he knew Tuesday's rally would not be allowed.
Homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia in 1993, but anti-gay feelings remain strong.
